Archive for September, 2009

Most artists take a few albums to really hit their groove. A chosen few, however, release a debut recording that stands out as the best in their catalog. In this episode, we count down the greatest debuts and discuss plenty of others that didn’t quite make the cut. We also talk about two bands from the excellent Broken Electric Records – The Wooden Idols Remixes and The Sidewalk Regrets. As always, you can read our picks after the jump and can subscribe to the show (or download this episode by itself) using the links below.

The human body is the subject of fascination for many musicians, and there’s a multitude of songs dedicated to the subject. In this episode, we count down our five favorite tracks about body parts, metaphorically or otherwise. We also welcome back a couple of bands we’ve featured in previous episodes for our artist spotlight: Nashville’s Paper Route and Norway’s The Samuel Jackson Five. As always, you can read our picks after the break and download the new episode with the links below:

I wouldn’t quite call this an “epic” playlist that Genius has created for me here, but man is it sure awesome. The reason I say it is intriguing, and the inspiration to blog about it, will probably only be obvious to people familiar with the album “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea” by Neutral Milk Hotel (the one Graham thought should have been on our top 5 of the second half of the ’90’s lists, and Graham, had I knew of it when it came out, I would agree). The album is an indie classic, and this playlist is based on my favorite from it, “Two Headed Boy.” This song is epic in itself, with Jeff Mangum’s powerful, genuine and quite endearing vocals sang and sometimes just flat out yelled over an equally passionate and often frantic accoustic guitar. The intriguing part is that the list closes with part 2 of this song (the closer on the album), which I’m not sure if Itunes is capable of reasoning out for itself or if it just coincidentally happened that way.

The lyrics in both parts of this song, although I believe the first to be better musically, are not only intriguing but are almost distractingly deep. I listened and listened to this song when I first heard this album, and upon reading the lyrics could only really decide that the artist was talking about some kind of a relationship and the good and bad parts he held on to dearly in its aftermath. Well, after a few years of occasional contemplation, I’m really no more savvy to the subject than before, but holy crap is this a great song. If you’re as interested as I was in the lyrics you hear in this song, check out the link before the list. Its a pretty sweet site I found called Song Meanings.net, and the community has had some outstandingly well stated interperatations of this song in the comments, all starting around 2004. If you just skip around to the long ones, they’re usually worth the read. Enjoy the list, because I certainly do 😀 Continue reading →

A new but nonetheless important tradition that I’ve developed in the past half-decade or so is ringing in of every new year not with Auld Lang Syne, but with “The New Year”, a wonderful and poignant take on new beginnings by Death Cab For Cutie. I like to believe that doing so has brought me good fortune, or at the very least a bit of fleeting indie cred. Sadly, this tradition did not carry over to this year, where I found myself at an abysmal party that happened to be booming “Fergalicious” at the moment the clock struck midnight. I have and will continue to contribute every bad thing that happens to me this year to this unfortunate event, and hope and pray that next year begins the correct way.

Fortunately, the redemptive qualities of “The New Year” are not limited to January 1st, as this iTunes Genius playlist got me through an otherwise difficult morning. Filled with semi-obscure tracks from some of my favorite artists, it was a real treat. In the spirit of Epic Genius Playlists, I just can’t keep this one to myself.